Growbo's January Growth Report
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Matt: Hey, everyone. It’s Matt here from Growbo. I'm joined by my girlfriend, Mariana.
Mariana: Hi. How are you? So, why don't you tell everyone like why are we sitting here with this beautiful view behind us? Like, what are we doing here?
Matt: Well, we're currently in Medellín, Colombia. We've been traveling through Latin America for the better part of the last five months. We took a break over the holidays to visit family up in New York and now we're down here in Colombia. It's beautiful.
For this video, I wanted to start doing a monthly update for you guys on the progress that I'm making with the business this year. As you all know, from the last growth report for 2017, we saw some really good growth last year. This year, we have a new big goal since we have become a products company.
What I wanted to convey with this interview is giving you guys some of the important stats that I know you’re interested in. I’m holding myself accountable because this puts a bit of positive pressure on me to work hard. I’m sharing the journey with you guys because I think you'll learn a lot from the mistakes and successes that we're seeing. I'm excited to kind of start this off.
Mariana: Okay. You just said that you have been traveling for the past six months. Is it hard to run your business while you're traveling or have you lost focus? How has that been?
Matt: Yeah. I think that's one of the big reasons why it's been helpful traveling. That's pushed me to make the decision to actually go in the direction of becoming a products business because I mean, that's more scalable. Also, the fact that we were traveling, you know, I was getting on calls with some clients and the connection would not be very good or maybe there'd be background noise. We have actually Latin music and people singing happy birthday in the background, although the mic might not pick that up. It's actually pretty good music.
And, yes. I mean, it's been a challenge to stay focused. One thing I've learned is that really all that you need is a desk and a good Internet or Wi-Fi connection. That's really the basics that you need. Did I answer your question?
Mariana: Yeah. Tell me a little about how your company did in this past month, in January 2018?
Matt: All right. So, I'll give the broad strokes that I know and I'll share some stats that I know people are most interested in. So, in terms of revenue, how much did we actually bring in when you subtract out revenue that is still lingering from services and some other miscellaneous revenue that we brought in from some other unrelated services or products that we sold? So, we just started focusing on products this month and we're officially a products company as I said, and we brought in $1,268 in revenue.
Now, I guess that's okay. It depends on how you look at it. I mean, for me, it's doesn't really sound like a lot because you know, coming off of last year, we made like, a good six figures and we had, you know, decent gross profit margins. And that's what is allowing us to kind of make this transition now.
So, it's a start. It's a start. And I'm really excited to do this regularly so that I can show you guys like, okay, you know, what I'm teaching isn't just theory, but it works. And it works because you'll be able to see the growth in our revenue and you'll be able to apply the lessons that we're learning. So, we brought in $1,200 in revenue and we're looking to at least double that for next month.
Mariana: Any mistakes? Any big wins in this past month here that you want to share with people, if you would like to share?
Matt: I'm an open book. So, yeah. Biggest wins, we're just actually starting this Growth funnel framework, as I call it, which was inspired by Juan Martitegui. So, Juan doesn't know me, but I know him because he was one of the first interviews that Andrew Warner over at mixergy.com did.
So, Andrew does these interviews weekly with entrepreneurs. Just kinda letting them tell their story. He interviews them. And Juan was one of his first guests. Something like eight years ago. And I always remember it. Him and Dane Max interviews were the best because with Juan's interview, he just laid out this super logical, makes so much sense, growth framework where basically he said, for his business, the way that he would double it every single month, month after month, was he would just have like one core focus each week. And then he would make all the changes, all the most impactful changes that he could within that week, and then move on the next week to the next focus. And he would track the results and he found that his business, he was able to systematically and predictably double month after month by having a different focus every single week. And it kind of allowed him to focus his creativity too.
So, I adopted that. I kind of tweaked it a bit more to match our business model. I put a video and a graphic app in a recent blog post last week. So, I think just starting to apply that framework was you know, win number one.
Win number two, I would say is, you know, just kind of starting up the year with what I feel is a great team because they complement me really well. I'm able to focus on what I feel I'm really best at and they're able to focus on what they are best at. So, I'm really, really happy about that.
And we just have like a really great system that's kind of humming and now it's just time to re-optimize it. And speaking of content systems, another big win was...And I'm going to get to the mistakes in a second. So, don't think that I'm just going to, you know, share all the positives and not share any of the negatives.
We started last week doing these five-minute Matt Hack videos. And that, along with, you know, just in terms of constantly putting out quality content, we recently broke 28,000 visits to the site. And that's really exciting because like, it just started really going up since we started doing this just in the last two weeks. And that's awesome because that's a 20% growth just in the last two weeks alone. And super excited to just keep going with that.
Mariana: And what about your mistakes?
Matt: Mistakes or I would say, you know, negatives, things that aren't going so well. I would say that... So, last year, we started actually actively removing people from our email list. For example, if you join our email list as a new subscriber and you don't click anything and you don't open anything, we will actively email you within 30 days and say, "Hey, we haven't seen any activity from you. You know, we're going to take you off in the next few days. But click here if you want to stay on and you know, maybe we just made a mistake."
So, we've been doing that and we found that that has really...because, you know, we're taking off people who aren't engaged, the rate of growth of our email list is really slow. So, that's something that I want to change and improve. I mean, we're still adding a lot of, you know, subscribers every month. We added 900 subscribers last month. But, you know, if we were eliminating two out of every three, that means that net new subscribers is only like 300, which means a very slow rate of growth, which is fine because those subscribers weren't engaged anyway, but the question is "How do we get more new actively engaged subscribers?" And actually, for this week coming up, you know, when we were making this video, is going to be for the framework convention. We're going to be focusing on email list growth this week coming up for that framework.
So, that's one of the things that isn’t going so well that we're going to look to change and improve.
I would say another loss or a thing that isn't going so well. We recently launched a new product called The Rocket Content Formula. And this is based on the last several years of experience that I've had. You know, just putting out quality content, seeing what works, seeing how it actually has a direct result by growing our traffic. The problem though is that we put out this product and we charged, right, what I believe is really fair. If not, I think the price might be too low. We'll definitely want to raise it, eventually.
But, for whatever reason, people aren't buying it. The 6-Figure Sales Funnel product is still our most popular and that's selling well. Or it's selling okay. I think that it's very comprehensive and I think that for some people, like they just want something that solves a specific problem, which is why we came out with the Rocket Content product in the first place. Because that's like, "Okay, if you want traffic, you should buy this product and you can go through it, and you can implement it and get results in a matter two weeks or less."
So it's really targeted to a specific problem. But, maybe copy needs to be better. I kind of need to go through the data and really evaluate, you know, what the issue might be. But that's one thing that isn't going so well.
I just thought of something, too. Back to your previous question, you know, what else is going well. Well, the sales for the Tripwire had been going really, really well. So we came out with this Tripwire, just over a month ago, and we made 92 sales just in the month of January for that and 14% of those people, you know, or at a rate of 14% of people are actually deciding....because we just implemented this upsale also. So, you buy the Tripwire, and then on the next page, we give you a one-time offer to get access to the Six Figure Sales Funnel for just a buck. So it's a $1, one week trial. And since we implemented that two weeks ago, thanks to the help of Sam Cart, which I'll talk more about in upcoming blog posts, we've seen conversions really go up for that. So that's another big win is just the number of sales.
And I think out of 92 total charges that we had come in, you know sales, 82 of those were for the tripwire. So the vast, vast majority was for the Tripwire. Yeah.
Mariana: Is the Rocket ship your newest product? What are you offering to people for this month? Like can they expect something from your business?
Matt: Yes. So, the Rocket Content system is our newest product. And we have another product in the pipeline right now. These are kind of lower-level products that I think are...they're designed specifically to fit in with the whole suite of products that we're developing, you know, related to funnels.
And, the new product that we're coming out with that's going to complement the Rocket Content formula, but also be bite-sized enough that you can take action and get results very quickly, is called Lead Factory. So, Lead Factory is going to be designed to solve the problem of okay, like let's say that you are a startup service business, for example, and you don't want to be hustling, going to networking events. You don't want to be, you know, just looking for referrals all the time. You want to monetize the traffic that's coming into your website. You want to turn that traffic into warm leads and warm leads that can become clients that will want to get on the phone with you, get a quote from you, and directly buy from you. So that's what this new product is going to teach. And it's going to fit in very nicely with the Six Figure Sales funnel and the Rocket Content System we're offering.
So, that's what's coming out.
The other thing that we're considering, or that's in the pipeline rather, is I've been getting a lot of feedback from our audience that they want more about marketing automation. And they specifically want to know, you know, just have more of an experience where they can look over my shoulder and just have something very basic that they can start with around marketing automation. So I think that we're going to come out with a course related to that very soon as well.
Oh, and to answer your question, you know, what else is coming out? I would say expect more Matt Hack videos. We're just going to keep following our own framework. And, yeah.
Mariana: Good. You said that the world needs problem solvers. Is there something that you can tell to people who like you, they have the dream to start a business and, you know, like they're starting from scratch? Is there something you can tell them, you know, about their idea of growing a business?
Matt: Yes. So, I started this business because I'm a creative person and I wanted more resources in order to make my ideas real. And this has been kind of an internal tagline of mine. If you saw one of the previous videos, you'll see on Trello how we set up a Trello board, and there's three columns to it. And Trello works kind of like sticky notes.
And, when it comes to coming up with ideas for "How do we grow the business?" each week, you know, we move ideas from the made column to the...or rather from the ideas column to the made column, which are the real columns. You know, as they go from conception to reality.
So, yeah. I started this business because I wanted to help others make their own ideas real. Particularly, creatives and entrepreneurs, who I believe are really the problem-solvers of societies across the globe, and I think that more problem-solvers having access to more resources, being able to cut down the amount of time between idea and reality for their project, whether it's a website, a t-shirt, business cards, landing page.
And, of course, our focus within that big spectrum is digital marketing and funnels. But, just being able to be that resource and having this impact is really important to me. Because it's a problem that I personally have always had, and I've always wanted to be able to move faster, but I never felt like I had the system or the resources in order to do it.
And as a bootstrapped-company, which most entrepreneurs are. Most entrepreneurs don't get funding. Most entrepreneurs have to go it alone, they have to make the mistakes. They have to make the same mistakes that so many others had before them because they don't have the resources. And this is a very painful experience and many people who have great ideas or great products and services, they aren't able to realize their vision or their dreams.
And so, Growbo, I want to be the resource and the go-to resource for entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping and who just need the resources, and the education, and the knowledge, and the tools in order to make their vision a reality. So, did that answer your question?
Mariana: Yeah.
Matt: Okay.
Mariana: Is there something else going on in your life besides Growbo? Like do you have some other projects going on that you want to talk about? Like is there something motivating you, you know, with Growbo? You know, tell me about a bit about that.
Matt: Yes. So, my motivation is to succeed, especially in making these videos because I don't want to get on these videos on what the monthly updates and be like, "Yeah, we actually didn't grow this month." So, that's what I would call, you know, fear or motivation from fear of failure, right? And I think a lot of entrepreneurs are actually motivated because no one wants to fail.
So, my motivation is to keep growing, obviously. The mission is very motivating to me. It's something I personally relate to and very deeply care about. But outside of the business, you know, I'm helping you as we start up the Bookies brand. So that's percolating right now on Instagram and we're getting the website going for that. And, other than that, you know, just enjoying life. You know, we're here in Colombia. We're really happy. You can see the sun kind of setting behind us. It's a great view. You know, I feel really lucky and blessed to have this opportunity to be able to travel and to work.
So, in terms of motivation, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing. And you know, making money supports that vision and just continually reinforces achieving the mission and helping other entrepreneurs to succeed. I think that, you know, in terms of specifics, you know we're probably going to visit an art museum, maybe climb one of these mountains that are behind us at some point. You know, just being able to keep enjoying life and things getting better and better every day.
Mariana: Since you said that you are an open book, like, is there something else that you want to share, you know, to finish the interview?
Matt: Let's see. I'm trying to think about anything that you guys and the audience might have a question about.
Mariana: We should make a live chat here so people can ask you.
Matt: Yeah, yeah. I think we're going to have office hours or a webinar at some point. But, I really want to hear from you guys in the audience. So, if you're watching this and you have a question and you want me to share something about the story or the stats or the journey in an upcoming video from Matt Hacks or another update that we might do for next month, please leave a comment and let me know what your questions are so that we can get better and we can keep this as interesting, relevant, and educational for you guys as possible, all right?
So, unless you have another question I think we'll stop at there.
Mariana: Yeah. It's fine.
Matt: All right. Thank you, everyone, for watching and I look forward to updating you again one month from now with the next growth report.
For more information on increasing traffic, download Matt's 22-Point Perfect Blog Post Checklist or invest in our new Rocket Content course, which is currently discounted.
